1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A peripheral apparatus control system enables a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”) user to access a peripheral apparatus via an appropriate interface, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ethernet (registered trademark), or wireless local area network (LAN). PC users can effectively use this kind of control system for various purposes in their houses and offices. An example of the peripheral apparatus is, for example, a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a scanner, a digital camera, or combinations of these devices or functions thereof.
Windows (registered trademark) 7, which is provided by Microsoft Corporation, includes newly introduced functions to manage peripheral apparatuses connected to a PC. For example, “Devices and Printers” is a window that displays a peripheral apparatus (or a plurality of apparatuses) connected to the PC. “Device Stage (registered trademark)” is a visual screen that displays a link to a unique application or service provided by each apparatus. Therefore, PC users can easily access and use various functions and services relating to respective peripheral apparatuses.
Conventionally, transmission of a print instruction from a Windows (registered trademark) application to a peripheral apparatus, e.g., a printer, a scanner, a copying machine, or a multifunction peripheral, has been performed according to the following procedure. More specifically, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-85132, the procedure includes enabling a user to select an apparatus as an output destination after launching an application and perform input and output operations for the selected peripheral apparatus.
For example, there is an application (hereinafter, referred to as a “recovery application”) capable of recovering settings of an information processing apparatus that relate to an output destination apparatus. If there is a plurality of printer icons created for a single output destination apparatus, the recovery application can delete unnecessary printer icon (s) other than a target printer icon that a user wants to use. However, in a case where various applications are launched from the “Device Stage”, it is doubtless that a user wants to use a printer icon associated with the “Device Stage.” Therefore, when a user uses a print application launched from the “Device Stage”, it is rare that the user operates a wrong printer icon. Accordingly, the recovery application launched from the “Device Stage” is not required to perform processing for deleting other printer icons.